


Covering His Tracks

by ghostlyhamburger



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-04 10:25:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11553255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostlyhamburger/pseuds/ghostlyhamburger
Summary: It's a fake dating au! But no one told Marinette about the fake part.





	1. Chapter 1

“I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. I know it would hard to start anything between us, but I have to tell you the truth. My Lady, I love you.”

“Oh, Chat Noir! You strong, handsome stud! Carry me away into the sunset so we can live a new life filled with delicious cheese!”

Adrien laughed and swatted at his kwami, who flew out of the way. “Come on, Plagg. Can’t you take this seriously?”

“No,” the cat-like creature replied simply. “It’s gross, and if you’re going to make me listen to your sappy nonsense, you should give me more cheese.”

“Father’s going to notice how much money is being spent on cheese eventually,” Adrien grumbled as he walked over to his bedroom’s minifridge. “Fine. One piece because you’re putting up with this.”

“I’ve trained you well,” Plagg said, settling onto his chosen’s shoulder to watch his prize emerge from the fridge.

Adrien just sighed. “I just need to find the right way to tell her how I feel about her. Then I can say it.”

“Sure you can,” Plagg said sarcastically, mumbling through a mouthful. “You definitely haven’t messed it up every other time.”

“Plagg, you know that—” Adrien’s words were cut off as the door to his bedroom suddenly opened.

Plagg darted into his chosen’s school bag as Gabriel Agreste entered the room. “Adrien.”

“Father,” Adrien nodded, standing up to face him.

“I thought I heard voices in here,” Gabriel said, eyes darting around the room. “Do you have a visitor I don’t know of?”

“I was talking…” the teenager trailed off as he thought quickly. “On the phone! To my girlfriend!”

He could just _feel_ Plagg laughing at him.

Gabriel arched an eyebrow. “You have a girlfriend? Who is she?”

“She’s, uh.” Oh shit he had to come up with a name fast. First girl that popped into his head was Chloe, so he went with the second girl’s name to come to mind, “Marinette. From school.”

His father just stared at him, and Adrien could feel a familiar tension coiling inside him. Finally, Gabriel simply said, “Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng. She’s shown great potential. Invite her to dinner this Friday, I would like to meet her.”

Adrien’s stomach started untying itself from the knots it had worked up. “Of course. I’m sure she’ll come.” He had no idea if she actually would, but he’d hopefully convince her.

After all, he just had to get the sweet, quiet classmate who could barely speak to him to lie to his father. The world famous fashion designer who Marinette idolized. Yeah, Adrien was sure this would work.

*

 The next day, as soon as Adrien arrived at school, he walked straight towards Marinette. She was standing on the steps near Alya, gushing over some picture in a magazine.

As Adrien approached her, the thought crossed his mind that she really was pretty. If he wasn’t in love with Ladybug, he probably would have asked her out on a real date a while ago.

“Hey Marinette,” he said as he reached her. “Are you free Friday night?”

“I, uh, er, that is, I,” Marinette started to say, but she was interrupted by Alya slinging her arm over her friend’s shoulders.

“She’s _definitely_ free, Adrien,” Alya said. “What’s up?”

“Do you want to come to dinner with me?” Adrien asked.

“She’d love to!” Alya said, as Marinette turned into an adorable shade of pink.

“Great,” he said with a grin. “it’s just at my house, so--I’ll see you there around 8?”

Marinette nodded so hard he thought for a moment her head might actually fall off. Adrien just responded with another smile before walking away.

As he caught up with Nino, he heard some very high-pitched squeals behind him. “What’s up with that?” Nino asked. “Did you actually just ask out Marinette?”

“Yeah, but no,” Adrien said. “There’s a different girl I really like. But, Father wouldn’t approve of her, and he does like Marinette.”

“So it’s not a real date,” Nino said, quirking an eyebrow. “Does Marinette know that?”

Adrien paused and frowned. “I don’t think that came up. I’ll talk to her.”

*

Adrien never actually got around to letting Marinette know the truth. He was going to, after school, but he was cornered by Alya first.

“I swear to God, Agreste, if you hurt Marinette, I will not hesitate to mess up that model face of yours,” she hissed, angrily poking him in the chest.

“I wasn’t going to hurt her?” Adrien responded, very confused.

“She really likes you, you know,” Alya said. “So you better not break her heart.”

“I won’t, I swear.” He was going to have to find some other way to tell Marinette that this was all for show, apparently.

“Good.” Alya spun on her heel and walked away like she hadn’t just been the most terrifying person Adrien had ever seen.

*

So on Friday, Marinette showed up at Adrien’s house, still thinking this was a real date.

Adrien didn’t know what was making him more nervous—making sure Marinette had a good time, making sure his father approved, or hoping that Alya wasn’t going to kill him. Still, he pushed all his worries behind a smile as he welcomed Marinette inside.

Dinner went surprisingly well. Marinette seemed a little starstruck at first, but she soon got over it and became more talkative than Adrien had ever known her to be.

“So I used some plastic cutters Papa had lying around from when he built new bakery shelves and an old pair of shutter shades to get the lenses just right,” she said, as she was detailing the sunglasses she had made for Jagged Stone.

“It seems to have been quite effective for a last minute effort,” Gabriel replied. “The fact that you have the skills to create your own accessories, as well as fashion, is a commendable achievement. Did you design your outfit today?”

“I did!” Marinette replied, and as she started to explain in-depth how she conceived the design, Adrien’s thoughts started to drift away. Marinette really was cute, in the red skater dress she wore. There was some black lace around the edges, and it was giving Adrien a weird sense of deja vu.

Soon, dinner was finished. Marinette offered to help people clean up, but Gabriel simply gave what could be considered an honest smile and waved his hand. “Don’t worry about that.  Adrien, why don’t you show Mlle Dupain-Cheng around? Watch a film, or something.”

Adrien nodded, and stood up. “Marinette? We can watch something in my room, if you want.”

She blushed so hard she almost matched her dress, but wordlessly nodded. “That sounds good! Really good…er…which way?”

Adrien just smiled and held out his hand. He noticed Gabriel’s approving smile as Marinette placed her hand in his, and as they left the dining room. Things were going really well. All he had to do now was hang out with Marinette for a while…and break it to her that this had all been a show for his father in the first place. No sweat!

He led her to his bedroom and gestured towards the shelf of DVDs and blu-rays in his collection. “What do you want to watch?”

She sat cross-legged in front of the shelf, her eyes scanning the titles. “Do you maybe have the Ultimate Mecha Strike movie?”

Adrien nodded and knelt down beside her to get a better look. “Yeah, it should be right-” He paused as he noticed an empty space on the shelf. “Huh. I think I let Nino borrow it, but he gave it back…hold on, I’ll go find it.”

He stood and left the room to find Natalie. Nino had said he’d given his father’s assistant the DVD last week, so it was entirely possible she still held onto it.

“Oh, yes, here it is.” Natalie retrieved the movie from her desk almost instantly. “I forgot about it. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Adrien said, smiling as he returned to the bedroom. “Hey, Marinette, I-”

He stopped in the middle of his sentence when he realized two things. His window was open, even though he swore it had been closed, and Marinette was gone.

Plagg floated into his line of sight. “Sorry, kid. I think she figured it out.”

“How?” Adrien asked. “I mean, I was going to tell her, but she just left?”

Plagg nodded, before zipping over to his stash of cheese. “She seemed pretty mad. Don’t worry about it, you’ll win her back.”

Adrien just sighed and sat on his couch, staring at the turned off television. “I don’t want to win her back, Plagg. I just didn’t want to hurt her feelings. I messed up, didn’t I?”

“Yep.” The kwami punctuated his words by shoving a piece of Camembert into his mouth.

Adrien knelt down to the shelf of movies to put Ultimate Mecha Strike: The Movie back in its place when his watch beeped. “I can’t worry about this now. Gotta meet Ladybug! Plagg, claws out!”

*

Ladybug didn’t show up to patrol that night. Chat Noir sat alone on top of Notre Dame, his eyes scanning the city and his head full of thoughts about how he messed up.

The air felt colder than normal, and Chat left his post earlier than he was supposed to. Paris would be fine.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien is an idiot. The stunning conclusion.

Chat Noir didn’t see Ladybug the next night either, but Sunday night, she finally appeared.

“Hi,” he said to her. “Where’ve you been?”

“Around,” Ladybug said simply. She stared out at the city, not meeting his gaze. “Things have been pretty quiet, right?”

“Yeah,” Chat replied.

There was a moment of awful, uncomfortable silence before Ladybug asked, “So how’s your _girlfriend_?”

What in the world was she talking about? “What girlfriend?”

“I heard you had a date Friday,” she said. “So, you’re such a charmer, she must be your girlfriend by now.”

Chat thought back to any time he’d been seen in public on Friday. He’d helped an old lady cross the street, but no one would call that a date. “My Lady, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, so she dumped you?” Ladybug asked, acid in her voice. “Not surprising, I can’t imagine anyone would really be that into you anyways.”

“Hey!” Chat cried, maneuvering around the rooftop so he could face Ladybug directly. “What’s going on with you?”

“You _lied_ to that poor girl!” she cried. “You just wanted to impress your father, so you had to trick a girl into dating you?”

He frowned. “How did you know about that?”

“That’s not the issue—it’s that you’re a liar, Chat Noir. Do you care about anything other than yourself?”

“I don’t know how you know about this, but of course I do,” Chat replied. “I care about saving Paris. I care about you.”

“But you don’t care about _her_ ,” Ladybug pointed out. “She might have actually cared about you, you know!” Without waiting for a response, she swung away.

Chat sat there for a moment, dumbfounded, before leaping off the roof to follow her. She didn’t seem to notice him as she crossed the rooftops of Paris.

Ladybug leapt onto a balcony and stopped suddenly. Chat was still three buildings away, but he could clearly see a pink flash of light and then—was that Marinette?

Oh.

_Oh._

Marinette dropped through a trapdoor. Chat found himself on the balcony soon after, peering into her bedroom. There wasn’t much he could see, so he opened the trapdoor window as quietly as possible and entered the room.

She was tearing pictures off her walls. Pictures of Adrien. There were a _lot_ there, far more than a normal friend would have—at least, he was pretty sure of that.

Everything was clicking into place.

Chat snuck down out of the loft area, using all his cat-like stealth to remain quiet. He promptly fell down the ladder.

Marinette whipped around, and her eyes narrowed when she saw him. “You _followed_ me?”

“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay!” Chat replied as he scrambled to his feet. “You’re mad at me. I get it! I get why you’re mad!”

“Do you really?” she asked icily. “You lied to me, you were careless, and now you’re stalking me!”

“But it’s okay!” he replied, excitement sneaking into his tone. “Because _you’re_ Ladybug! I needed to date you to-”

“To hide your kwami from your father,” she interrupted. “Plagg told me. That’s how I figured it out—because _you_ left your kwami in plain sight, not because I followed you anywhere!”

“That doesn’t matter!”

“It does!”

“But it _doesn’t!_ ” he cried, frustrated. “Because you’re the one I’ve wanted to be with all along! Marinette, I’m so glad it’s you-”

“Get out,” she said, not looking him in the eye. Her hand was balled into a fist at her side.

Chat cocked his head in confusion. “Milady, I love you.”

“Don’t _say_ things like that!” she yelled. “Get _out!_ ”

Chat hesitated. He hated seeing his lady like this, her fists clenched in anger and her eyes screwed shut to hold back any tears. He wanted to stay with her and make her happy again, but he realized that wasn’t going to happen tonight.

“I’ll see you at school,” he said softly before leaping up through the trapdoor.

*

The instant Adrien arrived at school on Monday, he was met by a punch to the sternum.

“Ow! What the hell?!”

“You deserve _worse_ , Agreste,” Alya growled, less than three inches from his face as her fist was still ready. “What the hell did Marinette ever do to you for you to break her heart? Or is being Chloe’s friend finally rubbing off on you?”

Adrien raised his hands up in defense. “I know, I know, I’m sorry! Did you have to hit me?”

“Yes,” she replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You _fucked up_ , Agreste. Now what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “I really do like Marinette. I want to fix this, somehow.”

Alya’s glare softened slightly. “Fine. I’ll help you. But I’m only doing this for Marinette, you got that?”

Adrien nodded, probably a little too quickly. “Yeah. Thank you, so much.”

After classes had ended for the day, Alya cornered Adrien again, this time with a manic smile on her face. “Okay. You’re going to give Marinette a peace offering.”

“A what?” he asked, confused and mostly just wanting to get to his car. He knew the Gorilla was staring at them.

“Peace offering,” she said. “Marinette said she’s upset because you think she’s someone she’s not. Now, _I_ think that’s ridiculous, because you’re been mostly nice to her before. Except for your stupid date. So, you need to show her that you know her.”

“That I know her?” Adrien asked, completely confused. “Of course I know Marinette. She sits right behind me every day.”

Alya just shook her head. “Figure it out, Agreste. We’re counting on you.”

“We?”

The girl only responded with a curt nod before running off to talk to Nino.

Ah. We.

*

Ladybug didn’t show up that night. That’s what Chat was expecting, anyways.

The night was quiet, anyways. It left Chat with a lot of time to think about Ladybug.

Of course he knew her, what was she upset about? He’d fought by her side for a little over a year at that point. He knew that she was strong, brave, beautiful. She cared about other people more than her own safety, a fact which meant Chat was always jumping into danger just so she wouldn’t.

As he pictured Ladybug saving Paris, again and again, a thought of Marinette popped into his mind, unbidden. He couldn’t picture his shy classmate being the one to stand up to Hawkmoth in front of Paris. He couldn’t imagine the stammering girl leaping across rooftops without a second thought.

Chat took in a deep breath of the night air. Was this what she meant? What did he really know about Marinette?

Marinette…she loved fashion. She wore the color pink a lot, and she looked good in it. And maybe Marinette wouldn’t be the one to stand up to Hawkmoth, but she stood up to Chloe, who was almost as scary. She put others first, always. She was just as brave, and strong, and beautiful as she was as Ladybug.

She wouldn’t leap across rooftops, but then again, Adrien normally wouldn’t either. That was all the suit. And…that’s the only difference Chat could think of. Marinette was Ladybug, just like Chat was Adrien. Did she not realize that?

Chat Noir vaulted over the rooftops till he got home. He knew what to do now.

*

The next night, Chat Noir went to visit Marinette Dupain-Cheng. He precariously balanced a cloth tote bag in the crook of one arm and a bouquet in his other hand as he knocked on the trapdoor window.

He saw Marinette stand from her desk, and then glare through the glass once she recognized him. Still, she came up to the loft and opened the trapdoor.

“What do you want?”

Chat held out the bouquet, a particularly lovely bunch of pink roses. “I wanted to get you red ones, but I know pink is your favorite.”

She gave him a wary look, but she took the roses and stepped back, leaving the door open. “Okay…”

Chat swung through the opening into her room. “I also brought you this,” he said, holding out the bag.

She took the bag and opened it slowly, then greedily grabbed the contents when she realized what was in there. Neatly folded yards of fabric became bunched up in her hands as she pulled the soft silks and cottons across her fingertips. “Is this charmeuse? And this velvet! It’s beautiful!” She looked back up at him. “How did you get this?”

“Well, you know who my father is,” Chat replied, a bit awkwardly. “Some of this is extra, and some of it was going to be part of his fall line, but I figured you would probably make something more amazing with it. He can always get more.”

“You stole fabric from _Gabriel Agreste_?” Marinette asked. “Just for me?”

Chat nodded. “I didn’t think just buying you something would be enough. I know I messed up pretty badly.”

The faint smile dropped from Marinette’s face, and she slowly set the fabric down on her desk. “Yeah. You did.”

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I’ll keep telling you that as many times as you need to hear it. I should’ve told you the real reason for the date in the first place.”

“I should have known that you wouldn’t really ask me out, anyways,” Marinette mumbled.

“Well, I promise, the next time I ask you out, it’ll be for real.”

“Next time?”

“Yeah,” Chat said. “I really hope you’ll give me a second chance. I meant it, the other night. That I love you.”

Marinette glanced away from him. “You love Ladybug. I’m not really Ladybug when I’m not in costume, you know.”

“Yes, you are,” Chat replied. “Sure, you don’t always have superpowers, but you’re still _you_. If the miraculouses didn’t exist—if you weren’t Ladybug and I wasn’t Chat Noir—I know I would have fallen for you anyways.”

“Is that why you chose me for your fake date? I would have gone on a real date with you—I mean—you still hurt my feelings. A lot.” She crossed her arms over her chest and added in a mutter, “You stupid, mangy cat.”

“Hey,” Chat said, pouting in false protest. “I’m definitely stupid, but I’m not mangy.”

She laughed, and the tension finally melted away a little bit. “That’s true. I never would have expected the great flirt Chat Noir to be a literal model.”

Chat grinned widely, and let his transformation fall. “Well, you know, Princess, it takes effort to look this good.”

“Oh please,” Marinette responded, finally looking Adrien in the eye. “We both know you were born Mr. Perfect.” Behind her, Plagg zipped by to meet a red creature about his size. Ladybug’s—Marinette’s—kwami. Probably.

“So that’s why you like me?” Adrien asked. “Because you think I’m perfect?”

Marinette blushed a deep red, and it was the cutest thing Adrien had ever seen. “I like you? How did—what do you mean?”

Instead of responding, Adrien took a step forward, closing the gap between them. He pressed his lips to hers and tried to pour everything he felt for her into that single kiss. It didn’t work, so he had to kiss her again, and again, until he realized it was really late, and also a school night.

“Mari-Marinette,” he managed to say, escaping her kisses just long enough to add, “I should probably go—we’ve got class in the morning-”

“One more kiss.”

One turned into five, until Adrien managed to tear himself away. “I’ll see you tomorrow, my Lady.”

**Author's Note:**

> what? a multi-chapter fic? I didn't even think I could do that.
> 
> This'll be 2-3 chapters long, I have plans


End file.
